Fort Worth daily gazette. (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1887-01-16
years since Waco furnished governor
for Texas, and she has right to take
joY in her prestige.
A GOVERNORS MEMORY

In his recent message, the governor, IN
referring to the Enclosure act, used thls
language:
TWAS asserted and urged by fence cutters
and their apologists that the large capitalist
stock raisers were monopolizing all the grass
and inclosing vast areas of land TO viii h
thew had no legal right, and-to ueet the
emergency of the time-the Enclosure act was
passed at the special session of 1854.
1t viii be remember that the executive
then urged that the unlawful in
closure of public lands be made q
felony, fence cutting having already
been declared penitentiaIy offense. Failing
in this eff rt, the executive suggested that the
crime denounced in the at of 1854 should be
prosecuted in some interior jurisdiction. All
these efforts. however, failed, and the act be-
came law without attaching to 1t any of those
necessary provisions. The fault is not in the
system of leasing. The defect Is solely and
entirely in the law and creation of the board.
The governor says he "urged that the
unlawful Enclosure of public lands be
made felony, .fence-cutting hastng al
ready been made peRiteRtiary ofense."
In the message to which the governor
now alludes, he said this:
recommend the enactment of a law making
1t highly penal for any ore TO inclose any pub
lie land without a contract with the state, by
which he may lawfully do so.
recommend a law making 1t highly penal
offense for any person to knowingly inclose or
surround the residence or land OF another,
without express authority of such person or
owner.
recommend law making it a felony, pun
ishabie by confinement in the penitentiary for
a number of years, for any person to Wilfully
or wantonly destroy or iniure the fe4cc or other
property of another.
l recommend the repeal Of the limitation
laws in cases named above for past and future
offenses.
If fence-cutting had slready been made
penitentiary offense, why did the gov
ernor deem 1t necessary to recommend
such a law, and why was the following
law enacted in compliance with the gov
ernor's recommendation to the special
session of the Eighteenth legislature?
Section l. BE 1t enacted by the legislature Of
the state of Texas, that any person who shall
Wantonlv, or with intent to injure the owner,
and willfully cut, injure or destroy any fence 7
part of fence, without such fence Is the
property of the pers so cutting, nJuri or
destroying the sane, shall be deemed guilty OF
an offense, and upon conviction therefor shall
be punished by confinem mt /" the state penl
Tertiary for term not less than one year nor
more than five years. a fence within the
meaning of this act is any structure OF wood,
wire, or of both, or o any othe material in
tend d 10 prevent the passage OF cattle, horses,
mules, asses, sheep, goats or hogs. Provided,
however that it shall constitute no ottense for
anv person owning and residing upon laod In
closed by the fence of another, who refuses per
mission to such person or persons so residing
within said Enclosure, free egress and ingre6s
10 their said land, for such person or persons to
open passage way through said inc'osure.
Sec . The fact tn at fences are being contin-
uously dc stToyed in many parts of the state By
lawless persons, and the penalty now fixed By
law is not of sufficient magnitude to deter Of
tenders and suppress the crime, creates an
emergency which justifies the suspension OF
the constitutional rule which requires nj! to
be read on three several days in both houses
and that this act should take effect and be in
force from and after its passage, and II Is so
enacted.
OF course Gov. Ireland wants to be SEN
ator, and, of course, the fourth annual
message which he had the honor to dellV-
er was intended to show the governor in
the best light; but this was no reason or
explanation for such defect of memory.
Fence-cutting was not penitentiary
offense at the time the governor says it
was, and it only became so upon the gov
ernor's recommendation at the time when
he failed to recommend that Illegal in
closures should also be made peni.en-
tiary offense.